#1 Cabinet Components mics_54

That’s pretty much the way I deduced I would have to manipulate the components. I do have a few questions. I assume the rotate tool causes issues with the axis recognition in the programs. Does this mean that if I want to save components or parts for re-use like styles and rails that a horizontal object should not be used for vertical instances. There are probably going to be instances that the rotate tool will need to be used. What is it about the rotate tool that causes problems?
Maybe I’m getting ahead of the game.

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

Brilliant Dave. Thanks for starting this blog and responding.

I have to admit that while I was sorting out some fiddly bits with groups with my plugin, I couldn’t really find a good justification for why they exist. They seemed to have the same attributes and capabilities as components, only they are laid out slightly differently internally and a bit harder to deal with. Perhaps it was only a question of permanence and the amount of memory consumed to represent them. Groups appear to be more of a temporary relationship within a model ( that’s why it’s harder to deal with, the internal links are not designed to be followed with any efficiency and are not independent ) whereas components are more permanent, standalone, the attributes nicely linked internally, and can therefore span models and be reusable with more efficiency ( but probably more internal memory).

For the size of models we typically work with, I’m certain it’s not an issue.

-- Steve, New Zealand, http://www.steveracz.com

mics, no, Rotate doesn’t cause problems with axis recognition. When you make a component, it gets its own axes that are aligned with the global axes at the time of “birth”. You can change the component axes’ alignment afterward if needed by right clicking on the component and choosing Change Axes. Then you set the origin, the red axis and the green axis in three clicks of the mouse. The blue is set outomatically.

Probably the biggest things about component axis alignment come into play when you apply materials, You’ll have less work to do to correct their alignment if the component’s axes are aligned correctly. The other comes when you import that component into another model later. It will import so its axes are aligned with the global axes. That means you’ll probably have to rotate the component after importing to make it usable.

Here’s some homework for you. I’ll let you discover what the problem is if you rotate components instead of flipping them. Make the box as I described above but make the bottom, copy the bottom to the top position and then rotate it end for end so that corresponding faces in the two components are correctly oriented. You’ll need to rotate the top component as if there is an axle running through from front to back. It’s easiest to do this with the Move tool by zooming in and hovering around with the cursor until you get the little red +s click on one and drag it around for 180°.

Next, edit the box las described above to make the box wider. Make another box and Flip the top instead of Rotating it. Edit the box to make it wider as described.

Steve, I’ve never figured out real good reasons for groups either. Probably the only good thing is for something temporary because when it is deleted from the drawing window it is gone. That’s not so for components. To get rid of them they need to be deleted from the In Model Component Library. I suppose if you know you’re drawing something that you’ll delete later and won’t ever want again (or don’t mind redrawing) a group would be useful.

Components have so many things going for them that makes sense to me to use them almost exclusively. You might have a wee bit more internal memory with a single component compared with a single group but multiple instances of a component have little impact on file size while the same number of copies of a group would increase file size.

If anyone is interested in proving this for themseleves, make a sphere and make it a group. Then make 500 copies of it. Select it, Ctrl+Move to copy it some distance. Hit Enter followed by *499 Enter. You’ll have 500 spheres in a row. Save that file and check the file size. Repeat that but instead of making the sphere into a group, make it a component. Compare the file size.

And of course after you’ve made all 500 spheres, draw a line around them at their equators. You do the groups and I’ll do the components. :-)

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Dave, Here’s some homework for you. I’ll let you discover what the problem is if you rotate components instead of flipping them. I’m assuming that you are refering to the fact that mirrored instances would modify in the same direction and the rotated instances modify in the opposite.

Probably the biggest things about component axis alignment come into play when you apply materials, You’ll have less work to do to correct their alignment if the component’s axes are aligned correctly. The other comes when you import that component into another model later. It will import so its axes are aligned with the global axes. That means you’ll probably have to rotate the component after importing to make it usable. This was more the issue to which I was refering.
One reason I use groups rather than components is that they are easily manipulated, selected and edited in close proxility to other objects in the model and the edit doesnt modify all the other instances of the copied group. But as you have stated the “make unique” command works for componenets. I had always considered, perhaps errantly, the “make component” command for creating entities to be re-used in other models but I had never studied the difference between the two…just stumbling along in the dark.

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

Bingo on the mirroring thing. You’re a quick study.

Components in close proximity to other objects in the model can be edited just as easily as groups. If you have a component open for editing, you will not modify the surrounding objects.

Use Make Unique when the components need to separate. For example, look at the third image down in my recent DCB Blog post. It shows the four legs of a cabinet. I drew the front left leg and made it a component. Then copied and flipped the copies to make the rest of the leg components. At that stage there were no mortises drawn and the legs were identical. Next I drew the mortises and grooves for the side rails and panels. This was done on one leg component but it was carried through automatically to the other three. Had I made the first leg a group instead of a component and copied that group, I would have had to edit each leg in turn to put in the mortises. Also, if I’d rotated the leg component instead of flipping, the mortise would have ended up in the wrong faces on the other copies.

After drawing in the mortises and grooves for the sides, the legs have to get split up because the next processes are different on the front and back legs. I selected two of the legs—the back ones—and chose Make Unique. That kept those two related to each other but separated them from the front pair. At that point I could edit a front leg component and add its mortises and then edit a back leg component and add its mortises.

The same sort of process applied to the stiles on the door. One got hinge mortises while the other got a hole for a knob. Prior to that everything that happened to one needed to happen to the other so their relationship was maintained up to that point. Actually even the rails in the door started out as instances of the same component but the bottom copy was made unique and then edited to make it wider.

Clear as mud?

Another benefit of using components instead of groups even for single things in the model like the top or the drawer front in the case of the cabinet I show is that I made copies off to the side to make exploded and other views. When something needed to be edited such as the length of a tenon or the size of the bottom panel, I on’y had to edit one instance of each component but the change was carried through to all the others so all of the scenes were automatically updated.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Components are clearly very elegant. Nicely explained. I learned something. Even with all the work on the cutlist plugin, I’m still a relative newbie with Sketchup. Knowing how it works doesn’t make you an expert on using it!!

Now I wish I only had to cut 1 part in the shop and get all its copies!

-- Steve, New Zealand, http://www.steveracz.com

Thank you Steve.

“Now I wish I only had to cut 1 part in the shop and get all its copies!”

That thought has crossed my mind on numerous occasions. ;)

Dave

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Thank you Dave!

In just this blog I’ve learned a lot about SU. I now have a better understanding of components and did not realize how the flip command and make unique command complimented each other. This is going to make my drawing time in SU much more effective! Thank you.

-- ...it's rennovation time!!!

Mark, you’re welcome. I’m glad to know my babbling helps folks.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.